Six podcasts that will help you cope with stress

At a time of unsettling news at home and abroad, these shows offer tips and first-person accounts to alleviate a spiralling sense of unease.

Emma Dibdin

May 2, 2024 – 9.00am

Email LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

Subscribe to gift this article

Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.

Subscribe now

Already a subscriber?

There’s no shortage of reasons to feel anxious at the moment – a relentless barrage of devastating news from across the globe, soaring food and housing prices, and an impending US presidential election in a polarised nation.

But for people who live with an anxiety disorder, spiralling and uncontrollable worries can be constant, regardless of whether there’s any obvious external reason for them.

These six podcasts deliver a mix of evidence-based tips and first-person accounts that may help alleviate and perhaps even neutralise anxiety.

Podcasts can offer practical and problem-focused techniques to help with anxiety. iStock

1. The Anxious Truth

This long-running self-help podcast is grounded in a combination of clinical expertise and everyday experience. The host, Drew Linsalata, is a self-described “former sufferer” of panic disorder, agoraphobia and depression. Now training to be a mental health therapist, Linsalata has been delivering accessible, friendly and practical advice in The Anxious Truth for more than 10 years. Some episodes are practical – how to calm down from a panic attack in the moment, how to find a therapist. Others are more reflective, focusing on topics such as the destructive effects of doomscrolling, how spirituality factors into anxiety recovery and how the fear of a panic attack is often what brings one on. Personal responsibility, such as how to deconstruct the feeling of powerlessness that often comes with anxiety, is a recurring theme in the show.

Starter episode: “Do I Have to Stop Fearing Anxiety to Fully Accept It?”

2. The Mental Illness Happy Hour

Back in 2012, well before either podcasts or conversations about mental health had reached the mainstream, comedian Paul Gilmartin began hosting this wry, candid and compassionate weekly interview show. His Happy Hour guests are mental health clinicians and podcast listeners as well as a mix of fellow comedians, writers and performers – including actress Mara Wilson, comedian Aparna Nancherla and author Susan Cain. What unites them is a willingness to delve into their experiences with trauma, grief and clinical diagnoses such as generalised anxiety disorder and schizophrenia. Each episode is bookended by Gilmartin reading a selection of anonymous listener submissions, which can include darkest thoughts, shameful secrets and gratitude lists. It all adds up to a comforting space in which brokenness is not just OK, but celebrated.

Starter episode: “Raised to Present Well – Dr Kate Truitt”

3. Your Anxiety Toolkit

As the name suggests, this series offers a variety of practical and problem-focused techniques that listeners can use in their daily lives, with an emphasis on anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. The host, Kimberley Quinlan, a licensed marriage and family therapist, strikes a warm and encouraging tone as she shares science-based titbits from her own clinical practice. Many of the tools are grounded in mindfulness – the practice of paying attention to the present moment, and to one’s thoughts, with an attitude of acceptance. Since the essence of anxiety for many people is worrying about an anticipated hypothetical scenario, this kind of approach can be ideal for breaking out of that mind set.

Starter episode: “20 Phrases to Use When You Are Anxious”

4. The Happiness Lab with Dr Laurie Santos

In 2018, Yale University opened registration for what would become the most popular course in its 300-year history, titled Psychology and the Good Life. Taught by Laurie Santos, the class focused on positive psychology, a therapeutic approach dating back to the 1990s that puts the same rigorous attention on positive emotions (including happiness, gratitude and resilience) that traditional psychology puts on negative ones. Following the success of the class, Santos spun off her teachings into this uplifting weekly podcast, which combines the latest research on happiness with conversations about how to harness positive psychology in relationships, at work, and in managing mental health struggles.

Starter episode: “Stepping Off the Path of Anxiety”

5. How to Keep Time

Today’s work culture tends to measure self-worth through productivity, and many industries are introducing quantitative measures to track worker efficiency. The feeling that our value is contingent on our ability to get things done can contribute to burnout, depression and anxiety, and erodes the already blurred boundaries between work life and home life. The most recent six-episode season of How To, a podcast from The Atlantic, encourages us to reassess our perception of time, with the hosts, Becca Rashid and Ian Bogost, exploring why it’s so difficult to truly rest, why “busyness” is a trap and what theoretical physics can teach us about the passage of time.

Starter episode: “How to Rest”

6. All Creatures

Sometimes, the best way to combat anxiety is to face it head-on. But if you’re in an anxious spiral, going over the same worries again and again, then distraction may be the best medicine. This wholesome and informative science podcast offers just that, delivering deep dives on animals of all kinds alongside interviews with conservationists and researchers. Each episode spotlights a different creature, including familiar species such as polar bears, puffins and, the internet’s favourite, capybaras, plus near-extinct rarities such as the Mekong giant catfish. Research indicates that owning a pet may have wide-ranging mental health benefits. But if that’s not in the cards for you, taking an audio vacation to the animal kingdom isn’t a bad substitute.

Starter episode: “How Animals Help Us Overcome Trauma”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.